NEWS RELEASE

11/13/01

Barbara Arroyo Cabbab, marketing coordinator, Continuing Studies Program: (650) 724-8456, bacabbab@stanford.edu

John Sanford, writer, News Service: (650) 736-2151, jsanford@stanford.edu

Stanford's Continuing Studies Program serves up diverse courses, free programs

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 26, for close to 100 courses, workshops and seminars being offered through Stanford Continuing Studies.

As usual, the program offers a great variety of classes in the humanities, sciences, personal development and business ­ everything from "Estate Planning" and "Quantum Mechanics Meets Special Relativity" to "The Writer's Notebook" and "Zen at Work."

Continuing Studies also has organized several free events and forums, including a three-part series titled "Doing Things with Words: Explorations in American English." The first session, "The Current State of American English: Exploring the American Heritage Dictionary with Geoffrey Nunberg," is scheduled for Jan. 24. It will feature three Stanford professors ­ education Professor John Baugh, who holds a courtesy appointment in the Linguistics Department; Seth Lerer, the Avalon Foundation Professor in Humanities; and linguistics scholar John Rickford, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor ­ together with Nunberg, a consulting professor in the Linguistics Department who chaired the usage panel for the American Heritage Dictionary (fourth edition). (Nunberg is also National Public Radio's language commentator.)

On Jan. 31, English Professor Andrea Lunsford, who directs the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, will present an illustrated lecture on manuals of elocution and gesture from ancient Rome to 18th-century England and 19th-century America.

The final installment of the series is set for Feb. 21. "Sociolinguistic Perspectives on African American English" again will feature Rickford and Baugh, who will be joined by Arnetha Ball, an associate professor of education, and Marcyliena Morgan, a linguistic anthropologist who teaches at Harvard and the University of California-Los Angeles.

The series, which is open to the public, is sponsored by Continuing Studies, the Program in Writing and Rhetoric and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Seating is limited; to reserve space, call (650) 725-2650.

On Jan. 7, a panel of actors, directors, playwrights and English professors will discuss Shakespeare in celebration of the January opening of the American Conservatory Theater's production of The Beard of Avon, a new comedy by playwright and Stanford drama lecturer Amy Freed. "Exploring Shakespeare: A Wise and Witty Panel Discussion on Authorship, Interpretation and Performance in the Bard's Plays" is free and open to the public, but seating is limited; to reserve a space, call (650) 725-2650.

Another free series of events ­ "September 11: What Has Happened and Where Are We Going?" ­ will continue in the coming months from 7 to 9 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. The first event was held Nov. 12. The two subsequent programs are scheduled to be held Dec. 3 and Jan. 14.

Several special music programs also are scheduled for the Winter Quarter. In February and March, the San Francisco Symphony will perform Richard Strauss' Don Juan and Four Last Songs, Michael Tilson Thomas' Songs on Texts by Emily Dickinson and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet. Tilson Thomas will conduct; celebrated soprano Renée Fleming will be the soloist. Albert Gelpi, the Coe Professor of American Literature, Emeritus, will join Tilson Thomas to discuss the setting of Dickinson's poetry to music from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 26 in Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. Tickets for the event are $25; tickets for the discussion and following night's performance are $65.

The world premiere of Sir John Tavener's Lamentations and Praises, performed by Chanticleer, will be held in Memorial Church at 8 p.m. Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. Tickets are $34. A free public lecture by Tavener, a renowned British composer, is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Jan. 27 in Dinkelspiel Auditorium.

Winter Quarter offerings also include the popular "Crossroads" course series and the "Great Cities" series.

"The Pax Romana Undone" and its accompanying Rome field seminar have been canceled.

Stanford staff members may use their yearly $1,200 allotment of Staff Training Assistance Program (STAP) funds for Continuing Studies courses and programs. Discounts are available to Stanford faculty members and students (and their spouses or domestic partners), as well as to employees who work at the university at least half time; seniors; local K-12 teachers; and Stanford Alumni Association Members (for their first Continuing Studies course).

For more information, call (650) 725-2650. Register or get more information online at http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu.

-30-

By John Sanford